Gauge for determining valve clearance



' April 7 1942. I A. R. ORR 2,278,710

GAUGE FOR DETERMINING :VALVE CLEARANCE Filed'Dec. s, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 April 7, 1942. A. R; ORR

GAUGE FOR DETERMINING VALVE CLEARANCE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec. 3,1940 Patented Apr. 7, 1942 UNITED GAUGE FOR DETERMINING VALVE CLEARANCEAlfred Richard Orr, Cripple Creek, 0010. Application December 3, 1940,Serial No. 368,387

Claims.

provide a valve clearance gauge for use in con- 1 nection with internalcombustion valve gearing capable of being easily attached to the valvegearing and removed so that accurate clearance distances may bedetermined in a shorter period of time.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparentduring the following description of the accompanying drawings, wherein,

Figure 1 is a detailed end elevational view illustrating the deviceembodying the invention applied to the rocker arm of an over-head typevalve gearing;

Figure 2 is a detailed side elevational view illustrating the manner inwhich the gauge is attached to the rocker arm of an over-head typevvalve gearing; 1

Figure 3 is a detailed cross-sectional view illustrating the gaugegreatly enlarged to disclose the operative parts thereof;

Figure 4 is a vertical cross-sectional view taken on line 4-4 of Figure3, looking in the direction of the arrows, illustrating a circuit makerand breaker for controlling a neon light or other visible indicator;

Figure 5 is a Vertical cross-sectional view taken on line 55 of Figure3, looking in the direction of the arrows, illustrating the driveconnection between the single offset contact and the indicating disk;

Figure 6 is a detail plan view of the graduated ring employed in thegauge;

Figure 7 is a vertical cross-sectional View taken on line 'II of Figure4, looking in the direction of-the arrows, illustrating in detail thelocation of the neon light; and

Figure 8 is a diagrammatic view showing the wiring between the circuitmaker and breaker and neon light.

In the drawings, wherein for the purpose of illustrating the inventionand wherein like reference characters will be employed to designate likeparts throughout the same, the reference character It) will generally beemployed to designate an internal combustion engine having a removablehead I I which carries a rocker arm support I2 on the upper end of whichis pivoted a rocker arm I3. A push rod I4 engages one end of the rockerarm as at I5 while the other end It ofthe rocker arm is adapted toengage a valve stem [1 projecting upwardly through the head I I. A coilspring I8 surrounds the valve stem I1 and has one end abutting the upperwall of the removable head II, while the opposite end is in abuttingrelation with a Washer I9 rigidly secured to the valve stem. I

The above structure is shown for purpose of illustrating the inventionand is known in the art of internal combustion engines as an overheadtype valve gearing.

The invention comprises a gauge generally designated by the referencecharacter which includes a cylindrical casing 2| adapted to be clampedto the end I6 of the rocker arm I3 by means of an encircling band 22having an offset portion 24 for surrounding the rocker arm. The offsetfree ends 25 of the band 22 are locked together by means of a bolt 26extending therethrough and being held in place by a nut 21 threaded onthe end thereof.

One end of the cylindrical casing 2| is closed by an end wall28-threadedin place as at 29 and centrally disposed on the inside of theend wall 28 is a boss 30 which forms an end thrust bearing for a rotaryshaft 3 I, the opposite end of which is supported by means of aspool-shaped bearing member having a hub 32 through which the rotaryshaft 3| extends. The hub is provided with end disks 33 and 34 which areadapted to engage the inner face of the cylindrical casing 2| and thedisk 33 is provided adjacent its periphcry with a lug 35 which isanchored in place by a machine screw 36 extending through the casing andanchored in the lug.

Projecting tangentially from the cylindrical casing 2| is a tubular boss3'! adapted to form a bearing for a slide rod 38, the lower end of whichis threaded as at 39 for receiving a threaded coupling thimble 40 sothat a single contact member 4I may be secured thereto by having itsthreaded end 42 received therein. The lower end of the contact rod 4| isadapted to engage the valve gearing washer I9 and it will be seen thatas the contact rod M is carried by the rocker arm I3, the rod will bereciprocated during the intermittent motion of the valve gearingaccording to the clearance existing between the end |5 of the rocker armand the end of the valve stem IT.

The upper end of the slide rod 38 is bifurcated as at 43 and is attachedas at M to one end of an oscillating lever 45 pivoted as at 46 to a stubshaft 41 rigidly secured to the disk 34 of the spool-like bearing. Theother end of the oscillating lever 45 carries segmental gear teeth 48which are adapted to engage gear teeth 49 formed on the rotary shaft 3|so that reciprocation of the slide rod 38 and contact rod 4| will causethe rotary shaft 3| to rotate in alternate directions.

Rigidly secured to the free end of the rotary shaft 3| is a disk 53, theperiphery of which extends nearly to the inner surface of y the casing2|, and the disk 50 is presented adjacent the open end of the casing sothat it may be visible therethrough.

Rotatably mounted in the open end of the cylindrical casing 2| is agraduated ring 5| having a flange 52 which engages the inner surface ofthe cylindrical casing and abutments 53 are formed on the end of thecasing for holding the rotatable graduated ring 5| in position.

Formed in the disk 50 is an attenuated slot 55 in back of which islocated a neon-type light 55 which is supported by a suitable base 55.The neon light 55 is of the same length as the slot so that said slotwill be illuminated intermittently at the end of the rotary movement ofthe disk 50 in alternate directions.

As shown in Fig. 8, the neon light 55 is in circuit with a seriestransformer 57 having a line terminal 58 and a line terminal 59, thelatter being connected to a source of current 50 which is adapted to bealternately closed to produce intermittent flashes of light when thedisk 50 reaches the ends of its oscillating motions.

To produce the intermittent closing of the circuit through the neonlight 50 at the ends of its oscillatory travel, a switch is carried bythe disk 55 and includes a pair of stationary contact members SI and 62connected by lead lines 53 and 54 to the line terminal 58. Thestationary contact members are provided with respective adjusting screws65 and E6 threaded in place whereby minute adjustments may .be made tocompensate for variations in desired closing of the circuit.

Rigidly secured to the disk 55, as at 61, is a pair of spring contactarms 68 and 59 which are adapted to normally be out of contact withtheir respective adjustment screws 65 and 6t and said spring arms areheld in place by means of a bolt 70 extending through the disk 50 andthe anchoring hub H carrying the spring arms.

A light coil spring l3 has its ends connected to the spring arms 58 and69 to exert a slight inward pressure thereon into engagement with thecontacts 5| and 52. I

The graduated ring 5| may be marked off to provide graduations denotingthousandths of an inch so that as the disk 50 reaches the end of itsoscillatory movement in one direction, the light tube 55 will beilluminated and then by moving the graduated dial 5| to registry withthe zero marking thereon in alignment with the occurrence of the light,the exact clearance of the valve gearing may be determined by denotingthe occurrence of the light in registry with the graduations 14 upon itssecond occurrence.

It is to be noted that as the disk 50 is rotated in opposite directions,the inertia thus produced when the disk stops at the end of its travelin one direction for its return movement, will cause the contact arms 68and 69 to alternately close thereby producing a complete circuit throughthe source of current 60 and gaseous tube element 55. When the rotarydisk 50 is rotating clockwise, the inertia will cause the spring contactarm 68 to engage the adjustable contact screw 65 when the disk reachesthe end of such rotary movement. Similarly, upon the return movement ofthe rotary disk 50 in a counterclockwise direction, the spring contactarm 63 will be closed by the inertia force when the disk reaches the endof such rotary movement so that the gaseous neon light 55 will again beilluminated. The wiring arrangement and the source of energy for theillumination of the neon light 55 is shown in Fig. 8 and in said figurethe rotary disk 50 has been rotated to its limit of movement in aclockwise direction which by inertia has brought the contact arm 68 intoengagement with the contact 6|, the current then flowing from oneterminal of the battery 50 over the wire 59 and through the seriestransformer 51, wire 58 and wire 63 to the contact 5| and contact arm 68and over the wire from said contact arm 58 to the other terminal of thebattery 6!). The neon light 55 is shown in circuit with the seriestransformer 51 and is illuminated. When the disk 50 reaches its limit ofrotary movement in a counterclockwise direction, the contact arm 69moves into engagement with the contact 62, the circuit then flowing overthe lines described for the illumination of the neon light 55. It willbe understood that between the extreme limits of oscillatory movementsof the disk 50, both contact arms 58 and 69 remain spaced from thecontacts GI and 52 with the battery out of communication with the neonlight 55.

It will be readily observed, that the current from the source 60 beingplaced in circuit with the neon light 55 at the end of the rotarymovement of the disk 50 in alternate directions will produce theoccurrence of the light in two different positions, which occurrenceswhen aligned in registry with the graduations M on the rotary dial 5|may be employed for determining the clearance between the valve gearing,including the rocker arm |3 and the upper free end of the valve stemI'I. t

It is to be noted that the resiliency of the movable contact arms 68 and69 is such as to allow the contacts to open after they have closed atthe end of the alternate rotary movements imparted to the disk 55. Inthis manner, the light is not illuminated between the limits of thealternate rotary movements of the disk.

It is also to be noted that the form of the in vention herewith shownand described is to be taken as a preferred embodiment of the same andthat various changes in the shape, size and arrangement of parts may beresorted to without departing from the spirit of the invention or thescope of the sub-joined claims.

I claim:

1. A valve gauge comprising a casing adapted to be positioned on thevalve gearing of an engine, an offset contact carried by the casing, anoscillatable disk within the casing, operative connections between thedisk and offset contact for effecting oscillations of said disk andmeans rendered visible at the limits of oscillatory movements of thedisk for determining the extent of movements of the disk.

2. A valve gauge comprising a casing adapted to be positioned on therocker arm of valve gearing, a movable contact member carried by thecasing for engaging a portion of the valve stem of the gearing andmovable means operatively engaged with the contact member and renderedvisible only at the limits of movements of said means for indicating theclearance between the rocker arm and valve stem.

3. A valve gauge comprising a casing, an offset contact member carriedby the casing, a rotary disk mounted within the casing, operativeconnections between said contact member and disk for effectingoscillatory movements of the disk, illuminating means carried by thedisk and means for operating the illuminating means at the end of therotary movements in alternate directions of said disk.

4. A valve gauge comprising a casing, an offset contact member carriedby the casing, a rotary disk mounted Within the casing, a, leveroperatively engaged at its opposite ends with the contact member and therotary disk whereby reciprocations of the contact member Will causeoscillations to be imparted to the disk and illuminating means carriedbythe disk operable when the rotary disk reaches the end of itsoscillation.

5. A valve gauge comprising a casing, an offset contact member carriedby the casing, a rotary disk mounted within the casing operativelyengaged with the offset contact memberand adapted to be operatedthereby, illuminating means carried by the rotary disk for projecting alight beam 'through' an attenuated slot formed therein, a circuitmakerandbreaker carried by the rotary disk adapted to close the circuitthrough the illuminatingmeans when the rotary disk reaches the end ofits travel in alternate directions and a dial for registry with theoccurrence of the illuminating means.

ALFRED RICHARD ORR.

